A Word on Sacrifices
There are times when it becomes necessary (or at least desirable) to attempt to redirect the current flow of universal energies in your direction (bearing in mind that this may or may not be a good thing, depending on what kind of mood the universe is in -- caveat preemptor).
      One way of doing this, as the Ancient Aztecs and the Puritan Witch-Hunters knew, is by means of a sacrifice. Often, it is believed that a sacrifice made to a deity puts you in that deity's favor and that they will then grant you some favors. This, of course, is silly -- what on Earth would a deity want with (for example) a charred body? And if they did suddenly have an odd desire for one, well, that's why they invented lightning. Nay, nay -- a sacrifice releases power (for example, the power that was previously being expended to keep a particular body believing that a particular mind should be allowed to boss it around), and that power is used (often unwittingly) by the person performing the sacrifice.
      Now, before you go tying the nearest virgin to a pole, consider that there are much more efficient ways of opening a bottle than dynamite. If you go grabbing a whole basketful of someone's life force, you're going to have to go through some very costly (in the soft-money market that is the occult plane) currency conversions to make it into something other than a force to make Betsy's body follow Betsy's mind around the office (or, given the possible nature of the sacrifice, a force that is very good at converting a pork loin into a charcoal briquette). All in all, it's much better to put some thought into the matter and get the kind of energy you actually need. In many cases, you can do what could be called a ``exothaumic sacrifice,'' in which the sacrifice has the effect of giving power a nudge along lines it has a tendency to go anyway (like giving one of those precariously-perched balancing rocks a push in order to convert a lot of potential energy into a flattened coyote), such as the tendency of imposed order to become disorder (as indicated by the Law of Eristic Escalation and shown practically in the Ritual of the Paper Clip Sacrifice). In addtion to saving you from a lossy occult energy conversion, this has the added bonus of not (to my knowledge) setting you up for any sexual harassment charges (face it -- if you set fire to Betsy the Virgin Secretary, the ACLU is going to be a lot more concerned about your bias against sexually-challenged female administrative assistants than about some mundane murder charge).